NATURE NOTES 
150 
Sir H. Maxwell, M.P., said that he would tell them his 
honest opinions, though he was aware that they might not be 
reconcileable with the views of all present. If they were to 
regard the matter in a practical and logical light, it must be 
conceded that wild animals had no rights except those which 
had been conferred on them by legislation in various countries. 
Where would they find their rights in nature ? They heard a 
great deal of the busy work of the little birds in killing the 
insects, but who was there to say a word for the insects ? 
Were they not also wild animals ? Were the tender mercies 
of the meeting to be limited to vertebrates ? Let them look at 
this in a reasonable sense. Sentiment had its due part to play, 
but it must be their servant, and not their mistress. It was not 
much more than fifty years since the initiation of humane legis- 
lation in Parliament. In 1825 a Bill for abolishing the brutal 
practice of bear-baiting was rejected by the House of Commons, 
but it was passed not many years afterwards. Then a Bill was 
brought in to prevent dogs from being used as beasts of draught. 
It was dictated by the most admirable motives, but he believed 
that it was mistaken. Those who had seen dogs working cheer- 
fully and willingly in many Continental towns would have 
observed that, unlike horses or mules, they were able to lie 
down when the vehicle was standing still. It was impossible 
to beat or abuse them in the same way as horses, for a horse 
suffered mutely and redoubled his efforts, while a dog would lie 
down and yell, and get under the cart if he could. It did not 
pay to ill-use a dog in harness. He was not advocating the 
restoration of the system, because we were well able to get on 
without it in this country ; but the Act, framed under mistaken 
sentiment, had done nothing more than confer on dogs a statutory 
right to idleness, a very questionable boon, as those who had 
tried it could testify. It must be admitted that sentiment was a 
somewhat capricious power. They heard a great deal of the 
ruthless destruction of wild birds, but seldom anything about 
the inhumanity of condemning a bird, the very type of freedom, 
to life-long captivity. Women were more abundantly gifted 
with the quality of mercy than men, but he feared that they 
were the best and most consistent customers of the bird dealers. 
He did not like to reflect on the misery of caged birds, and was 
quite sure that those who kept them were unaware of it, because, 
unhappily for themselves, most birds had a cheerful, contented 
expression of countenance and lively movements, which dis- 
guised what he believed to be their real sentiments. The 
mortality of foreign birds imported annually to keep up the 
supply would pass all belief if reduced to statistics. If there 
was any right that could be said to be inherent in any animals 
it was that of the migration of birds, and they had only to 
imagine the strong impulse and suffering that those kept in 
wire cages must undergo. Women were the real instructors in 
works of mercy. There was only one place where men could 
